528
In the several versions of the series, A Vista, Furness
Abbey, again shooting into the light, strong shadows pull
the viewer through and past a fi gure, or fi gures, stand-
ing in the archway towards a more distant animated
group. With notable exceptions, fi gures in Fenton’s
landscape and architectural photographs are relatively
rare, usually appearing only to add scale to a building or
an expanse of landscape. However major assignments
demonstrated that he was just as accomplished in the
photography of the animate as the inanimate. The royal
portraits (1854–1857), the Crimean War images (1855),
ghillies and gamekeepers in Scotland and Lancashire
(1856–1859), a cricket match (1857) and the Queen’s
Cup shooting match at Wimbledon (1860) all serve to
demonstrate the breadth of his understanding of his
medium. His exceptional achievement in fi gural photog-
raphy is a series of studio compositions exploring exotic
and middle eastern themes produced in the late 1850s,
with titles such as Nubian Water Carrier and Pasha and
Bayadère. Inspired by a Victorian fascination with the
mysterious east, these images sit somewhat apart from
the main body of Fenton’s work. Recent researches in
the USA have thrown much fresh light on the extent
of this work, its inspiration and its reception amongst
Fenton’s peers.
Towards the end of his relatively short photographic
career, Fenton embarked on the production of a series
of elaborate still lifes, exploring the textures and pat-
terns of fruit, game and other often unrelated objects.
Considered to be the height of photographic art when
fi rst exhibited, these images also mark the zenith of
his technical achievement with the medium. These
images won him many awards and plaudits, including
a medal at the 1862 International Exhibition. It was in
a text accompanying a stereoscopic pair of just such a
composition that the Stereoscopic Magazine in 1862
announced Fenton’s retirement from photography, and
his return to the legal profession.
An auction sale of all his work—negative and
prints—resulted in the major proportion of his landscape
and architectural views being purchased by Francis
Frith, and subsequently published as a series of themed
bound volumes—The Works of Roger Fenton—includ-
ing such titles as Cathedrals and Landscapes. Frith
continued to publish some of the views until the end
of the nineteenth century, and sections extracted from
several others continued in print as postcards until well
after the Great War.
John Hannavy
Biography
Roger Fenton was born in 1819 at Crimble Hall, near
Rochdale in Lancashire, one of seventeen children born
to his mother and stepmother. The family’s wealth came
from mills and banks in the Rochdale and Heywood
areas of Lancashire. His father, John, became the fi rst
Member of Parliament for the newly created Rochdale
constituency in 1832, and for a few years sat on the
same side of the house as the Whig (Liberal) MP for
Chippenham, William Henry Fox Talbot.
At the age of seventeen, Roger was enrolled at Uni-
versity College London, to study mathematics, Greek
and Latin, and graduated with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts in 1840. In the same year, he enrolled to study
law at UCL, and also developed an enduring interest
in drawing and painting. In 1843 he married Grace
Maynard, by whom he had fi ve daughters and one son.
Both his eldest daughter and his son died in childhood.
By 1844 Fenton was studying art in Paris, and upon
his return to England, developed friendships with Ford
Madox Brown, Charles Lucy, and other leading paint-
ers of the day. Despite being called to the Bar in 1851,
Fenton continued to practise as a solicitor for some
years, with offi ces in King William Street in the City
of London. He is also believed to have kept chambers
in the Temple from 1852/3 until 1865, although his
work as a professional photographer occupied him
full time from 1854 until 1862, when he resumed his
law practice. For much of his married life, the family
lived at 2 Albert Terrace, Regent’s Park, London. He
died at his home in Potter’s Bar, Hertfordshire in 1869
at the age of fi fty.
See also: Victoria, Queen and Albert, Prince Consort;
le Gray, Gustave; Waxed Paper Negative Processes;
Calotype and Talbotype; Wet Collodion Positive
Processes; Talbot, William Henry Fox; Royal
Photographic Society; and Société Héliographique
Française.Further Reading
Baldwin, Gordon, Roger Fenton—Pasha & Bayadere, Los An-
geles, Getty Museum 1996.
Daniel, Malcolm, and others All the Mighty World: The Photo-
graphs of Roger Fenton, Museum of Modern Art, and Yale
University Press, 2004.
Gernsheim, Helmut, Roger Fenton, Photographer of the Crimean
Wa r, London: Secker and Warburg, 1954
Hannavy, John, The Camera Goes to War, Edinburgh: Scottish
Arts Council, 1974.
Hannavy, John, Roger Fenton of Crimble Hall, London: Gordon
Fraser, 1975.
Hannavy, John, “Roger Fenton and the British Museum” in
History of Photography, 12:3, 193–204 London: Taylor and
Francis 1988.
Hannavy, John, “Roger Fenton and the Waxed Paper Process”
in History of Photography 17:3, 233–243, London: Taylor
and Francis 1993.
Lloyd, Valerie, Roger Fenton, Photographer of the 1850s, Lon-
don: South Bank Board, 1988.